Red-hot GOP race spurs early voting in Texas

Updated 11:26 pm, Friday, July 27, 2012

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Next to former Governor of Alaska Sarah Palin stands with her husband Todd and Ted Cruz, Texas candidate for the U.S. Senate, and his wife Heidi Friday, July 27, 2012, at Town Green Park in The Woodlands. South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint also spoke at the rally. Ted Cruz is running against Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst in a runoff election next week. ( Johnny Hanson / Houston Chronicle ) (Houston Chronicle)

Next to former Governor of Alaska Sarah Palin stands with her husband Todd and Ted Cruz, Texas candidate for the U.S. Senate, and his wife Heidi Friday, July 27, 2012, at Town Green Park in The Woodlands.

Ted Cruz and his wife, Heidi, were pleased as Sarah Palin gave his campaign a boost before a crowd of supporters Friday in The Woodlands.

Ted Cruz and his wife, Heidi, were pleased as Sarah Palin gave his campaign a boost before a crowd of supporters Friday in The Woodlands.

Photo: Johnny Hanson

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David Dewhurst's campaign has released a new television ad that features Rick Perry, who calls Dewhurst "the one proven conservative candidate."

David Dewhurst's campaign has released a new television ad that features Rick Perry, who calls Dewhurst "the one proven conservative candidate."

Photo: Michael Paulsen

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Former Governor of Alaska Sarah Palin, left, and South Carolina Gov. Jim DeMint, right stand with Ted Cruz, Texas candidate for the U.S. Senate, and his wife Heidi during a rally Friday, July 27, 2012, at Town Green Park in The Woodlands. South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint also spoke at the rally. Ted Cruz is running against Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst in a runoff election next week. ( Johnny Hanson / Houston Chronicle ) (Houston Chronicle)

Former Governor of Alaska Sarah Palin, left, and South Carolina Gov. Jim DeMint, right stand with Ted Cruz, Texas candidate for the U.S. Senate, and his wife Heidi during a rally Friday, July 27, 2012, at Town

Early voting for Tuesday's primary runoffs ended with a flurry Friday as Texans flocked to the polls in greater than expected numbers, due largely to the red-hot GOP race for U.S. Senate and a few local contests.

Totals from the state's 254 counties still were being tallied by the Texas secretary of state late Friday, but based on reports from key counties, Republican voters who were barraged with campaign advertising were turning out in high numbers to settle the score between Senate candidates Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst and former solicitor general Ted Cruz.

Which Senate contender holds the advantage going into Tuesday was debatable. Dewhurst may have benefited from the large number of mail ballots, while Cruz followers insisted he was surging toward victory - with a boost from former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin in The Woodlands on Friday.

Projecting an "extremely tight" finish next week, Rice University political scientist Mark Jones said "Cruz has a very slight advantage right now, in part because his campaign seems to have more momentum … and it's generating more enthusiasm among voters."

On a village green in The Woodlands on Friday evening, an enthusiastic crowd of approximately 1,000 tea partiers joined Cruz in a "Yes, We Can" chant parodying President Barack Obama and gave a rapturous welcome to Palin, who told the crowd that those "who cling to our guns, God and Constitution" have a friend in Cruz.

A relaxed Cruz, wearing boots and faded Levis, told the crowd they had the power to restore the U.S. Constitution, retake the U.S. Senate, retire Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid, repeal "Obamacare" and "retire" Obama.

"We're on the 2-yard line," Cruz told the crowd. "It's the very end of the game. We have marched the entire length of the field, we started out deep in our end zone - we started out up at the hot dog stand - and I tell you the other side has brought in the 1978 Pittsburgh Steelers to guard that end zone. But we are facing a battle to push those final two yards. I gotta tell you that collectively when the men and women here got us to this runoff, there was a collective shriek of terror from the Austin political establishment."

Palin described Cruz as "a proven, common-sense constitutional conservative, and he's a fighter and he will bring new leadership to the U.S. Senate. He will shrink government, he will be putting back on the side of the American and he will defend the Constitution. Ted is not going to D.C. to make nice with the foo-foo, shee-shee cocktail crowd," she said. "He's going to do the heavy lifting to rein in our out-of-control government."

Dewhurst has new ad

Dewhurst campaigned Friday in Tyler. Saturday, he is headed to Amarillo, Lubbock, Midland and Abilene. His campaign released a new television ad featuring Gov. Rick Perry, who has been actively campaigning for Dewhurst and in the ad calls him "the one proven conservative candidate who can make conservative change happen in Washington."

Federal finance reports show that Dewhurst lent his campaign $8 million more in the last weeks, bringing his total self loans to $24.5 million. He has repaid himself $5.4 million of that.

Cruz, who earlier had put about $1 million into his campaign, added $250,000 on July 23, a federal report shows.

Political scientist Jones said the five-day early voting period drew a large number of seniors as usual, but the interest was broader due to the candidates' high spending.

"Since the Republican Party became dominant in the late '90s through the 2000s, we haven't had a Republican primary of this magnitude in terms of interest, in terms of investment of time, and certainly in terms of investment of money," Jones said.

Calling the runoff unique due to the heavy spending and its late timing due to redistricting, Jones said "we're really in unknown terrain." Even so, based on turnout data from major counties through Thursday, Jones called the GOP voting pace "very strong" and added that Republican mail ballots were up about 20 percent.

On the Democrats' side, it was a different story during early voting, Jones said. "In the Democratic primary, it's like tumbleweeds are blowing other there," he said. "Some of the congressional races are generating some enthusiasm, and there are some down-ballot races."

Still, "what we don't know is actually how many people are going to turn out on election day," Jones said. "At this point I would say that we're looking at somewhere in the 750,000 to 1 million range in the Republican primary."

Nearly 90,000 people voted early and by mail in Harris County, while Bexar County tallied 40,196 in-person ballots.

Harris County busy

Harris County's total already is far higher than the next-busiest primary runoff election, in 2010, when about 58,000 total votes were cast early and on Election Day.

Approximately 79 percent of the county's early votes this week, or 70,484, were cast by Republicans; about 19,000 came from Democrats.

"When you spend as much money as they've spent in this primary, primarily for the U.S. Senate race, it drives turnout," said Harris County Clerk Stan Stanart, referencing the Dewhurst-Cruz race.

In Dallas County, 49,450 total votes were cast early this week. About 69 percent of those, or 33,892, were cast by Republicans. Another 15,558 votes were cast by Democrats.